Nigerian government and renovation of palaces, worship centres

 

Last Thursday, July 23, 2026, I granted an interview to Arise News television on its Newsday programme. It was on the reported huge budgetary allocation of N8 billion earmarked for renovation of mosques and churches in the 2026 Federal Government’s budget. The previous day, I had granted an interview to Daily Trust correspondent on the same issue. By the time the newspaper published the report in its July 23 edition, it had expanded the scope to include over N22bn budgeted for renovation of 106 palaces in the same budget. The total sum came to N30.15bn. During the Arise News interview, I expanded the scope of discussion to include the palace renovation. I roundly condemned the misplaced priorities. The interview went viral as excerpt from it was published by The Cable and BusinessDay newspapers. True Vision Television likewise interviewed me on it.

The question is, why do Nigerian government keep embarrassing us by doing ludicrous things? The case of the purported fake agency named  “Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council” headed by a con-man named Prince Adeyemi, Adeniyi Matthew who was a able to run a fictitious agency for over one year, secured office space, got official website, open bank account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, opened official website and even get a budgetary allocation of N1.3bn in the 2026 budget is still being investigated, now we have this humongous allocation for  renovation of palaces, churches and mosques. Are we cursed? What has government business with these issues?

According to Daily Trust newspaper of July 23, 2026, “The huge allocations for maintenance and construction of palaces and religious institutions at a time when critical sectors such as health and education are begging for attention have raised concerns over government spending amid a N31.45 trillion budget deficit and rising debt obligations. An extensive review of the budget document released by Tracka exposed widespread accountability loopholes, showing that 11 palace projects worth N5.85 billion have no identified physical locations, making public tracking and oversight impossible. Also, none of the 45 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies saddled with executing these multi-billion-naira palace projects possesses the legal or statutory mandate to construct royal structures. Instead, the federal government routed billions of naira meant for palaces through completely unrelated research institutes, agricultural colleges, and specialised health facilities, bypassing standard procurement scrutiny.”

According to the Daily Trust report, the N8.05 billion earmarked for religious projects could have supported the equipping of hundreds of primary healthcare facilities across the country. Based on the prevailing prices of equipment sourced from the suppliers, a basic but functional primary healthcare centre would require between N35 million and N50 million for essential medical equipment, depending on the quality, brand and scope of services. Using this estimate, the N8.05 billion allocation could have provided equipment packages for between 160 and 230 primary healthcare centres nationwide.

It is noteworthy that the N30.15bn budgetary allocations were made by the federal lawmakers, both Senators and House of Representatives as part of their multi-trillion-naira constituency projects; a practice which has been widely criticized by successive administrations but which the National Assembly has stoutly defended as part of lawmakers’ representation role which is constitutionally guaranteed.  My grouse with this phenomenon is that it brings about budget distortions. Many of the projects such as sinking of boreholes, provision of street lights and grading of community roads are under the Local Government and should have no financial support from federal government.

These projects are without feasibility studies, environmental impact assessments and appropriate costing. Monies are just arbitrarily allocated to these projects. As revealed above, why do you have to insert renovation of palaces and faith-based organisations in Ministries, Departments and Agencies that have no constitutional and statutory mandate to provide such services? Why can’t the lawmakers work with federal budget office to have their constituency projects or zonal intervention projects captured during the budget drafting phase rather than resorting to padding the budget of the executive arm?

According to multiple online sources, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has recovered and intercepted billions of naira in cash, equipment, and assets diverted through public constituency and executive projects. These major recoveries happen via the nationwide Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative better known as CEPTI. The ICPC intercepted and saved over ₦30 billion for the federal government through tracking items and funds listed in the budget but diverted by public officials and contractors. The initiative forced hundreds of runaway or defaulting contractors back to project sites to finish abandoned or poorly executed rural water, health, road, and school projects. The anti-graft agency retrieved hundreds of millions of naira worth of diverted empowerment items, machinery, and project vehicles meant for local communities that were cornered for private use.

It is not only the lawmakers that have budgetary allocations for faith-based organisations. According to this newspaper in its January 26, 2026 editorial, “The Federal Government has allocated N11.5 billion for religious pilgrimages in the 2026 budget. The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria receives N5.99 billion, while the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission gets N5.57 billio. Between 2022 and 2024, the Federal Government and at least 21 states reportedly spent about N120 billion sponsoring Christian and Muslim pilgrimages.” 

The editorial also reported further that “Nigeria ranks fifth globally in Hajj allocations, trailing only Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Over the past 10 years, an estimated N2 trillion has been wasted on Muslim and Christian religious pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Rome, and other places. Such subsidies only boost the economies of host countries. Saudi Arabia, for instance, generates an estimated $12 billion annually from religious tourism, according to Statista.”

In 2024 alone, Federal Government approved N90 billion subsidy for Hajj. Unfortunately, part of the resources was embezzled. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission grilled and detained the former Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Jalal Arabi, in mid-2024 over the alleged mismanagement of a N90 billion federal government Hajj subsidy. Investigators accused top officials of inflating operational costs and making unauthorized withdrawals. The EFCC stated that Arabi and other ranking officials fraudulently overpaid themselves for operational expenses, drawing far above their entitled limits in Saudi Riyals. Anti-graft investigators recovered a total of SR314,098 from high-ranking officials involved in the overpayment scheme. The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee probing the matter criticized NAHCON for discrepancies and poor accountability in how the funds were handled. President Bola Tinubu sacked Jalal Arabi in August 2024 and replaced him with Professor Abdullahi Usman.

I totally agree with the submission of this newspaper to wit: “As a secular state, Nigeria cannot afford to keep wasting money on religious affairs. The government’s sponsorship of religious pilgrimages violates the spirit of Section 10 of the Nigerian Constitution, which states that the government of the federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as a state religion.” Any traditional ruler who wants to renovate or build a new palace can do so by organising a fundraiser. Political exposed persons can donate generously their personal funds to that cause rather than having a government budgetary allocation made to them. As pointed out earlier, Nigeria is running a deficit budget and can ill afford to spend on this kind of private affairs.

I.G: @jideojong